20 iconic episodes of Sex and the City you need to rewatch

Running with Scissors (Season 3, Episode 11)

Sex and The City is no stranger to dealing with the topic of STDs and other sexual mishaps, but it was still a big deal when they featured Samantha getting her first HIV test done.

For a long time, HIV and AIDS were seen as a gay man’s disease, and if you contracted HIV, you were considered a leper of society. Obviously, now we know that anyone is susceptible to the virus, and there are actually high rates in women as well. For a woman as sexually active as Samantha Jones, it’s no surprise that she would get tested, but that didn’t make it any less scary for her.

Sam starts dating a man named Tom who seems like the male equivalent of her, but he’s surprised to find out someone who has as much sex as they do has never been tested. Samantha decides to bite the bullet and get it done, and her interaction with the doctor is so very Samantha (“Do you swallow?” “Only when surprised.”)

This episode also features the satisfying, but heartbreaking, moment when Big’s wife Natasha catches Carrie in their apartment. Natasha was supposed to be away in the Hamptons, but comes home early when Carrie is walking around the kitchen in just her bra. She tries to escape without being caught, but Natasha catches her and chases her down the hall.

Carrie figured the person who would be most hurt by their affair would be her in the end, but when Natasha trips and falls on her face, she realized she’s not just hurting herself, but everyone else involved too.